With teams featuring Christiano Ronaldo, Pato, Angel di Maria, Mesut Ozil, Ronaldinho, Andrea Pirlo, Gonzalo Higuain and a host of other world class attacking players, the Champions League tie between AC Milan and Real Madrid was always going to have scoring chances and the first half was full of them, but it wasn’t until the 45th minute that the ball finally made its way into the net. di Maria found space from 25 yards out and with everyone in the stadium expecting him to have a go, the Argentine slipped a pass through to Higuain who was in alone on goal and calmly slotted the ball home.
UEFA Champions League Wednesday: Real Madrid 1, AC Milan 0 At Half Thanks To Higuain Goal
Real Madrid were the better of the two sides in the first half, creating several chances and on one sequence were only denied a goal because Pirlo used his his twice to clear a pair of balls off of the line midway through the half. di Maria wasted a couple opportunities at goal for the visiting Spanish side and several other attacking forays came to a halt not because of good defending, but a missing final pass by Madrid, who feasted on a shaky Milan back line. In fact, Madrid’s goal came partly because Alessandro Nesta could not hold the line and kept Higuain onside, who was not going to miss from 12 yards out.
Just because the Rosseneri were shaky at the back does not mean they were without a few chances of their own going forward. Ronaldinho was bright in the early minutes and nearly connected on a couple passes that would have resulted in clear scoring chances. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has himself one glorious opportunity, but slipped and fell on the slick San Siro turf.
Milan showed enough going forward to give them hope of finding an equalizer and even a winner in the second half, but that’s assuming their back line can tighten up and keep Madrid from scoring more. After all, Madrid should be two or three up at this point in this match between two European giants.
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